Field
This invention relates to methods and systems used in the creation of a simple-to-use, precise and efficient automatic all-grain beer brewing system.
Conventional beer-brewing is a several thousand-year-old multi-step process that leverages natural chemical reactions with raw ingredients that include water, yeast and typically barley and hops to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. The time-honored conventional steps prior to brewing involve “malting” whole-grain barley (or other grains) and then roasting the grain to various degrees and cracking it in a coarse fashion.
The actual brewing process consists of steeping the cracked, roasted, malted grain in water at a temperature (typically around 150E-160F) calculated to release sugars of the right type and amount for the beer recipe being followed. This process is commonly referred to as mashing. This steeped fluid (known as sweet wort) is then separated from the spent grain in a process known as lautering. Lautering typically involves filtering and rinsing or sparging the grain to capture as much of the sugars as possible.
The sweet wort collected from the mash is then boiled and reduced with (typically) hops as well as other ingredients referred to as adjuncts to trigger chemical reactions that impart bitterness, flavors and aroma. It is not unusual to have a requirement that each one out of a set of adjuncts be added at a different point in the brewing cycle, thereby complicating efforts to automate the process. After the brewing process is completed, the hot wort is cooled to room temperature, at which time yeast is added to start the fermentation process. Fermentation, which typically takes place in a separate air-proof vessel, is the process by which the sugars in the beer wort are converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide, and typically takes from one week to more than a month, depending on the style of beer and recipe used.
Beer-brewing is typically performed by qualified expert brew-masters using a variety of specialized equipment and techniques to achieve satisfactory predictable, repeatable results. Commercial and craft brewers employ a minimum of five main vessels in their production of beer, as shown in FIG. 1. The horizontal path shows the flow of fluids, while the vertical arrows highlight the ingredients added at each stage, as traditional brewing is usually an additive process.